When God Calls

Luke 9:57 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

Well it comes with great sadness that I say, our pastor of four years, with the church twelve, has been called to Minnesota. It is laying heavy on my heart but I know, in the grand scheme of things, God’s master plan is never our plan.

It is in the heart of a Christian that when God calls us to act, we must do so. Many of you won’t understand that, but allow me to elaborate a bit.

Many people think that being a Christian is just believing in Christ, reading the bible about Christ, and having faith in Christ. It is so much more than that; it is about FOLLOWING Christ where and when He calls you also. I capitalized following because believers have the faith, read, share the word part down but a Christian has to have the FOLLWER part down too, and we must understand when God calls someone. Instead of being sad, we need to be supportive.

I want to whine about it a bit, Pastor Mike leaving. For four years he and his staff have been a constant source of a shoulder we as a family could turn to. Every Sunday we get up, drive the 25 or so miles to church, whether it was piping hot or freezing cold, we go.

It was always a heart touching, thought provoking service that kept lingering in our minds throughout the week until the next service.

Whenever it wasn’t pastor Mike, granted the pastors gave a good sermon, it wasn’t Pastor Mikes fire! You get used to waking up on Sunday’s and looking forward to your pastor and his sermon.

We’ve been through a few pastors in our church life. First we had Pastor Wells at a UCC church in Texas, then Pastor Don and Tim and at Grace (an evangelical church) then Pastor Mike here, our first church in Nebraska, at Efree.

We were called to Nebraska via Steven going blind four years ago. We had to follow Christ in where He was calling us, and he was calling Steven home. We found the best church in the area (for us) after visiting a few others, Steven found one of the best doctor’s in the state (to operate and give him sight again), we found the perfect home, a perfect school, and to me a perfect life.

Wait, wait…perfect by no means; we have had our share of struggles. When we had no Thanksgiving meal, it was our church who handed out bags of groceries to the needy families to see that they had a meal (Easter too.) When we needed tires, it was a friend from church who supplied two brand new tires, when I had no insurance for a dentist, it was the church that saw to it that my bill was PAID IN FULL! When we couldn’t afford propane to heat our house, it was the church who paid the propane company. Perfect no but Godly provided in a perfect manner? Yes!

I see this going on across the nation, Churches being the backbone to families when they struggle. Mission trips to foreign lands and home, our church is there. It is what God has built his community of believers FOR. To be Christlike one must GIVE more than receive. God calls and the community FOLLOWS! (No we’re not all following him to Minnesota)

Pastor Mike might be leaving this church but our community of Christians will continue to carry on the mission he started 12 years ago. Pastor Mike has done so much for our church seeing it built up to the height of 900 + parishioners, he is now being called to serve at another church where he might do the same thing to God’s community and with that I say, "Go with God Pastor Mike! He’s leading and you must follow."

Mark 16: 20 And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.